4 July 2022
At 22 years old Jai Pandya is being recognised for five years’ service at this year’s Long Service Awards, and his friend Libby Easterbrook is close to achieving the same.
It’s not often you see a young person receive a long service award for volunteering at Harbour Hospice. Not because young people don’t volunteer for the charity but because they haven’t had time to clock up very many years yet.
But at 22 years old North Shore’s Jai Pandya is receiving his five-year Long Service Award this year. He started volunteering for hospice at just 16 – and so did his 19-year-old friend Libby Easterbrook, who will receive her five-year recognition next year.
The pair, who became friends through volunteering together, both help at the Devonport Hospice Shop on Saturdays. Jai, who is studying engineering at AUT, fixes gadgets and checks that toys and puzzles are complete and in good working order. Libby, who is studying health science and global studies at The University of Auckland, serves behind the counter.
It was Jai’s family that encouraged him to get into volunteering. His mother is a Harbour Hospice nurse and his older sister had volunteered at the shop for about a year. When his sister left Jai took over her shift, intending to stay long enough to get a reference so he could get his first paid part-time job. But after getting a job at New World he realised he enjoyed the hospice shop so much he stayed.
“It was something nice to come to every Saturday, and it was something constant that I could keep coming back to,” he says.
Libby joined the shop to complete her Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award – a positive programme for 14 to 24-year-olds that sees them volunteering in their community as well as developing other skills. But, like Jai, she enjoyed the work so much she also stayed on.
“It’s really fun. It’s fun talking to people in the community that you wouldn’t normally interact with. You can spark up convos with anyone about anything because there’s lots of bits and bobs in the shop. You might ask someone what their weekend project is then you have a nice little chat. It’s a nice way to start the weekend.”
They do other fun stuff too, outside of volunteering. While Libby loves playing the guitar, watching movies and going tramping, Jai loves cooking and drawing. At the moment he’s making a model boat out of matchsticks.
Both would highly recommend volunteering for hospice to other young people. “Because the other thing is that we’ve both got a wardrobe full of great second-hand clothes,” laughs Libby. “You never know what’s going to pop up. That’s the beauty of Hospice shops and op shopping.”
We need more volunteers in our shops! If you’d like to join the team at your local hospice shop please chat to the manager in store, or click here to send us your details and our Volunteer Services Team will be in contact.
